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Rough week at work

Bowtiepower00

Bowtiepower00

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Had a long, rough week at work.

Im a RN in a ICU, mostly covid pts at this point. Lost a lot of pts this week. More than one a day. Looked through the list of admits for the new year, none of the covid pts have survived. Lots of devastated families.

Not looking to get into political debate, just want everyone to stay safe.

Between work and some health related struggles in my personal life, it’s been a rough start to the year.

To all of my fellow brothers (and sisters) in healthcare… @tucsoncacti @hedley_lamarr08 and I’m sure there’s others, stay strong.

Hopefully my back heals up and I can get out soon, I need some golf therapy. Plus, I have a new Callaway Mav Max 3w I need to hit.

Thanks for listening, needed to vent a bit.
 
Good luck, and stay safe. Hope you get your back feeling well enough to play.
 
Ooof that’s hard. Wishing and praying for the best.
 
Stay strong man. Head up. Eyes forward. Walk faster. Do what’s next. It’s exhausting. I literally just removed a crack head from the ER that stood in the floor and screamed like a banshee over me refusing to give her apple sauce. It’s trivial but she shouldn’t have cussed me out when she got here.
 
hedley_lamarr08 said:
Stay strong man. Head up. Eyes forward. Walk faster. Do what’s next. It’s exhausting. I literally just removed a crack head from the ER that stood in the floor and screamed like a banshee over me refusing to give her apple sauce. It’s trivial but she shouldn’t have cussed me out when she got here.
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Thanks man. Yeah I float to the ED on occasion, and work closely with them day to day. You guys are a different breed. Lol.
 
I got story’s and can tackle a black bear. Tolerance is a virtue such as patience. The “objects in rear are closer than they appear” is a very real thing in my world 😂😂😂
 
Hospital has been emptied out. And not necessarily in a good way. Anticipating the next wave in about 2 weeks. Luckily I was working with some great MDs and RNs this week.

Oh well, I’ll keep soaking up this OT, short on staff pretty much every shift. These new FT OL irons aren’t going to pay for themselves. Lol.
 
Man that is rough, keep your head up. Almost my entire family is medical ( Mom GPN, Dad CCP perfusion , Sister GP ) this is tough times. I remember seeing the pain coming home as a kid when they lost someone and it sucked. I cannot imagine how much baggage goes home now.

I will say thank you for all you do! Thank you for putting up the good fight for all of us. The word Hero is overused at this point to where it falls on deaf ears, but know we as a general public think all the medical staff are amazing!!! I truly hope your week gets better with small victories that build to a positive outlook. We all understand that a servants heart is heavy, but we need you, and THANK YOU!!!
 
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I'll be sending up prayers @Bowtiepower00. This always resonated with me...

Many times we are faced with more than what we can handle on our own.

We are never faced with more than we can handle when we have faith and confide in others for help and support.
 
hadi05 said:
I'll be sending up prayers @Bowtiepower00. This always resonated with me...

Many times we are faced with more than what we can handle on our own.

We are never faced with more than we can handle when we have faith and confide in others for help and support.
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I appreciate it, and it’s all good. As bad as it sounds, I was lucky to have a GREAT intensivist (lung doc) on call this week who shoots his patients and families straight- and pulls no punches. He doesn’t keep patients alive indefinitely because he’s afraid of lawsuits or other BS. An old school Texan who tells families straight out- we are going to make your loved one a DNR and we’re not going to keep them alive with no hope of recovery. I have a large amount of respect for him and have worked alongside him for years. Really great physician and person. Never disrespectful to staff even when you can tell he is stressed.

When I came on the unit over the weekend we had a younger MD on call. Younger, terrified about a lawsuit or losing their license, a “kick the can down the road” doc, as I call them. Sunday was absolutely awful. Knowing the Doc that was coming on to cover the rest of the week brought me peace.

Believe me, death is not the worst thing that can happen in medicine. We can keep people alive far longer than they should be with modern medicine, and in many cases, it ends up being nothing but torture for not on the the patient, but the staff taking care of them.

My apologies if this is a little too honest, but it needs to be said, IMO.
 
Bowtiepower00 said:
I appreciate it, and it’s all good. As bad as it sounds, I was lucky to have a GREAT intensivist (lung doc) on call this week who shoots his patients and families straight- and pulls no punches. He doesn’t keep patients alive indefinitely because he’s afraid of lawsuits or other BS. An old school Texan who tells families straight out- we are going to make your loved one a DNR and we’re not going to keep them alive with no hope of recovery. I have a large amount of respect for him and have worked alongside him for years. Really great physician and person. Never disrespectful to staff even when you can tell he is stressed.

When I came on the unit over the weekend we had a younger MD on call. Younger, terrified about a lawsuit or losing their license, a “kick the can down the road” doc, as I call them. Sunday was absolutely awful. Knowing the Doc that was coming on to cover the rest of the week brought me peace.

Believe me, death is not the worst thing that can happen in medicine. We can keep people alive far longer than they should be with modern medicine, and in many cases, it ends up being nothing but torture for not on the the patient, but the staff taking care of them.

My apologies if this is a little too honest, but it needs to be said, IMO.
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No apologies needed.
 
You see the worst of it in ICU. Hang in there.
I’m in the ER and the volume of people sucking up resources that don’t need to be here suck the life out of all of us.
Toss in a bunch of “baby docs” and we’re all done.
 
My wife works in neurology and their office covers sleep also for the hospital system here. Hospitals got hit hard and they then take from the offices and deploy where needed. My wife has done 2 deployments and she said it was the one of the worst experiences of her life. She has done 1 deployment to the ER which she said was absolutely the craziest night of her career ever, and 1 deployment to the mental/Neuro department. I cannot imagine half of what you see or deal with. Much appreciation from us in this family.
 
THANK YOU for what YOU DO. you are a credit to society.

I know a little of what you are going through. My Wife is a retired trauma/surgical nurse of 45 years. Except for some volunteer work, she missed the covid invasion.

However, even in normal times, Nursing is a tough job both mentally, and physically. I know this because I've seen it.

One of our Granddaughters is a radiologist. Due to current issues she travels from hospital to hospital. This due to staffing shortages. 60-70 hour work weeks are her norm. Some weeks are even longer. She's young, and has the energy to handle the tasks required of her. Surprisingly she has not caught the virus after a year's worth of work being around it. In contrast, both her younger sisters have caught the stuff from highschool attendence. Go figure I guess.

I have all the respect in the world for medical, fire, police, and others who deal with today's hazardous work places.
 
Thanks for what you do.
 
Thanks for what you do, you are the true heroes of this pandemic.
 
Thank you for your hard work and everything you do. My wife sent me an article titled The Death of Empathy that she felt illustrated her feelings on going to work and how they have changed in the last two years. I hope we’re near the end of this challenge and that the road is a less bumpy moving forward. You are a hero!
 
Bowtiepower00 said:
Had a long, rough week at work.

Im a RN in a ICU, mostly covid pts at this point. Lost a lot of pts this week. More than one a day. Looked through the list of admits for the new year, none of the covid pts have survived. Lots of devastated families.

Not looking to get into political debate, just want everyone to stay safe.

Between work and some health related struggles in my personal life, it’s been a rough start to the year.

To all of my fellow brothers (and sisters) in healthcare… @tucsoncacti @hedley_lamarr08 and I’m sure there’s others, stay strong.

Hopefully my back heals up and I can get out soon, I need some golf therapy. Plus, I have a new Callaway Mav Max 3w I need to hit.

Thanks for listening, needed to vent a bit.
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I feel you bro! I’ve been a two time ER Covid patient that is still typing today. Not ICU though. Outside of that I’ve spent the year vaccinating the world it seems. I’ve golfed 4 rounds in ‘21.

The one time was bad, probably would have been ICU’d had I let them. O2’s in the 60’s. Oof. Not a fun night.

The other time it was related to pain from coughing from the pneumonia that developed. No biggie there. A cracking/popping pain in your chest when you’ve previously broke your sternum? Not something you want. X-ray shows no new fracture (yeah I trust those on that, lol-they’ve missed four fractures in my life because they see the prior trauma and don’t look for new?), so I’ll just go with the grinding sensation in there as normal? For now. I’m not in terrible pain? Best I got.

Ha, a duel rant. Sorry bro! I’ve hated life since this too if it helps to have a friend in misery.
 
Thanks for sharing and hang in there. Both my brother and his wife are in healthcare and are working crazy hours due to Covid.
She comes home and cries almost every night and he consoles her as much as he can. A lot of people just don't understand the pressure, both physically and mentally that this pandemic puts on the healthcare workers.

I thank you all for what you do for us !!
 
Many thanks to the OP and other health care workers for everything you do. I still can't believe the number of stories I see on TV and read about with patients in hospital with COVID who didn't get the vaccine because "I didn't think it would be like this". It must make what you have to do even harder when most of it is so unnecessary. Regardless, hang in there and know your golf brothers and sisters here have your back, at least virtually.
 
All the best today @Bowtiepower00. Keep your head up and thanks for doing what you do 🤝.
 
Thank you. Much respect for the work you do.
 
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